Optic Gaming Wins Starladder ImbaTV Invitational

Image by Optic Gaming

Following a 7-8th place run at DAC 2018, Optic Gaming takes down VGJ.Thunder 3-1 in the grand final series at Starladder ImbaTV Invitational Season 5. They flexed the versatility of their players in the final series, choosing 17 different heroes out of a possible 20. The 1st place finish nets them $135,00 and 450 DPC points, which finally puts the team on the Pro Circuit board at 14th place. However, it's still a tough rough ahead for the team if they're pushing towards a TI8 invite. They'll have to get in and pull off a win in one of the two Majors they're able to participate in: ESL One Birmingham and China's Supermajor.

Patch 7.13 Targets Deathball Meta

Valve released another patch this week. In another creative approach to balancing, Valve dodged targeted bans and nerfs to heroes and instead changed the meta around them. Towers give less gold and Barracks and Shrines got stronger. It'll now be tougher to snowball through the early game, with high ground being harder to crack. The way that base stats affect heroes also received sweeping reworks. Check out our initial impressions of the patch. We'll be following up with a one week update on the impact of the patch on the meta.

Mineski Reprimands Iceiceice for Racial Slur

While streaming on Twitch, Iceiceice faced public backlash when he invoked a Black racial slur to describe why he disliked his name, Daryl. He immediately corrected himself after, substituting the phrase "black person," but the comment ignited discussions about social awareness in a game that crosses international boundaries. To address the controversy, Mineski released a statement that said iceiceice "has been reprimanded" and that it won't happen again. Though Iceiceice may be more conscious about his public persona now, his comment may have hit a tipping point with Dota's gamers, which has to face what is acceptable conduct in a global community.

Citing difficulties with Timado's citizenship and visa status along with Dota's tournament schedule, VGJ.Storm will be replacing Timado with Resolut1ion. Even though Resolut1ion carries Pro Circuit points from his time with OG, the late roster move forces VGJ.Storm into TI8's open qualifiers.

It's good to see PPD doing well. I feel OpTic has a lot of potential. Not sure what VGJ Storm is thinking replacing Timado, I hope he finds success with another team. In news of Iceiceice, people just need to grow tf up. Take 5 minutes in Arteezy's stream and you'll be greeted with n-word galore (the fact we have to substitute this word is absurd as well btw). Iceiceice has always been somewhat of a troll, and even if he did mean it with malicious intent, I don't think it's his employer's role to punish him. Players are rotated like trading cards among teams, and nobody thinks one player's actions represent a team.

In more serious news,

Currently the Enchanted Mango has a 34.80% win rate. This is unacceptable. It is our duty as fellow gamers of the DotA 2 community to put this item in the position of power it deserves. It has been there for us when we needed mana for reincarnation, when we had that clutch nyx stun saving our teammate's life, and when we accidentally used it in fountain before the runes even spawned. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

In order to post on this forum you need to agree to the Dotabuff Code of Conduct, which, among other things, states that you will abide by this: "Racial or Ethnic Hatred:Do not make any posts or links to websites containing language or images that promote racial or ethnic hatred, use a recognized racial/ethnic slur or allude to a symbol of racial or ethnic hatred."

Several of the posters are guilty of violating this rule, and I expect Dotabuff to take action.

Next, for those of you saying "it's just a word," or "people get triggered so easily," please read up on some history and educate yourselves. Maybe talk to some African-Americans about how they feel. If you're confident that it's "just a word" then you should be fine doing that.

Claiming that Daryl was just trolling doesn't fly here. What he said was that he doesn't like his given name because he associates it with a specific racial community. That in itself is indicative of racist attitudes. Add the use of the n-word and yeah, the guy is a racist. Should Mineski take action? Yes, they should have dropped him from the team. Otherwise it tells people that Mineski and their sponsors are fine with racism, even if they wouldn't use those words themselves. Valve should ban him from tournaments, at least for a while. If you let him keep playing then it tells ignorant kids that using racist language is acceptable or that you'll just get a slap on the wrist (another sentiment in these comments). If Valve wants their game to be a game for everyone they should make it clear that minorities are welcome.

If Dotabuff wants their site to be a site for everyone, then they should enforce their code of conduct.

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